RGD 210 Tablegram.

[Tedzed1]

Well, I finally made a start on this one today, but progress has been slow,
After dismantling the beast to get the chassis out, it seemed to be caked in dust,
On further inspection, the layer of dust was extremely thick and gooey, under the dust layer I found a sticky yellow glue like substance, not sure what it is, but it does not look like nicotine,

So first day progress has been to respray the dial, and various methods of attack on the chassis with different substances, such as metal cleaner, wire wool, abrasive pads and T-cut, I will finally finish it off with a good car body polish,

The progress in the pictures has took me about SIX hours so far, more to come tomorrow.

[tiv48]

what a transformation hopefully gue is not wax from mains tx
rob t

[Joe]

WOW! Shame to put it back in the case.

- Joe

[Tedzed1]

Hello Joe, thanks for the comment, but I have not finished with it yet.

Hello Rob, not sure what it is, but thankfully it has not come from the TX, it is also on the Colloro record deck on both the top and
bottom, and in some places, it has fine wood shavings mixed in with it, if you look closely at the second picture, you can see some on the
chassis and the back of the tuning scale diffuser.

[Yorkie]

Excellent clean-up job Paul - what a transformation!

The best thing I've found by far for removing great grime, nicotine stains etc from chassis is brake and clutch cleaner. It's a wonderful solvent - I spray it onto a cloth or brush and apply it to the chassis. It evaporates quickly, leaves no residue and seems not to attack plastic, bakelite, varnish, rubber etc. I've never been a big fan of WD40 because it is of course primarily designed as a water displacement (hence its name), and thus, leaves a film of oil on any surfaces. The very last place I'd use it is on bearings, switch mechanisms etc. I find silicone grease best for that. Sure, it has many uses and is much favoured by many. Fine on squeaky door hinges - not so good as a gunge remover.

Best of luck with the rest of the restoration Paul.

[Tedzed1]

Thanks for that tip David, probably a lot easier than the methods that I used, I used to use WD40 on nearly everything including using it
as a switch cleaner, I am a lot wiser nowadays.

Finished the chassis today, bolted the TX and smoothing block back on, replaced resprayed dial diffuser, changed a handful of wax caps,
replaced one blown dial lamp, and fitted two good used EL84 output valves as the originals looked a bit stressed.

Now onto the record deck.

[Yorkie]

A pair of EL84s, about 6 Watts output, LW, MW and FM, autochanger record player. Nice large open chassis to work on too. What's not to like about that? And people cart them off to the tip. When it was lauched in in Aug 1964 it cost £49.15 + Purchase Tax, which brought the price up to £66.00. At today's prices accounting for inflation, >£900. You've made excellent progress Paul once you got the bit between your teeth!

[Tedzed1]

Well, it has taken me most of the day, but after much work, I have now finished the Collaro record deck,
plenty of old grease to remove first, re-grease, T-cut, polish, refit cartridge which checks out ok,
So next job will be the Cabinet in the next couple of days.

Hi David, when you said LW, MW and FM, it threw me a bit, until I realized mine is an earlier model, LW, MW and SW, built in 1955.
Surprisingly with the same model no, must have been an updated version.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/rgd_two_ten_210_twote.html

[Yorkie]

Sorry for any confusion and consternation Paul!

It's cleaned up very nice, and being a tablegram, rather more easy to find space for than a gram, and well worth the space it will occupy.

When you say "the cartridge checks out OK" is it ok for stereo records or just mono?

[Tedzed1]

Hi David, no confusion and consternation caused, it is the original Acos GP61 cartridge which means it is only mono,
but being such a small headshell I think Iam rather limited to a sizable replacement, I have a spare SC12H which I might try for size.
Do you know of any other possibilities that might fit?